The SDFLA Blog is dedicated to providing news and notes regarding federal practice in the Southern District of Florida. The New Times calls the blog "the definitive source on South Florida's federal court system." All tips on court happenings are welcome and will remain anonymous. Please email David Markus at dmarkus@markuslaw.com

Monday, October 03, 2016

Federal courts are OPEN (UPDATED)

When the U.S.
Supreme Court opens its fall term on October 3, the public won't see a typical
First Monday in October. The court won’t hear any arguments on its opening day,
instead convening briefly for announcements and the swearing in of new bar
members. The cancellation of arguments is meant to recognize the Jewish holiday
Rosh Hashanah while also adhering to the 1916 law that requires the court to
begin its term on the first Monday in October. That's not all: the court won't
sit at all on October 12, when Yom Kippur starts. And it won’t take the bench
on October 10 either. That is the federal Columbus Day holiday....It appears to
have taken a 'critical mass' of two Jewish justices on the court to push the
court to accommodate the need of observant Jews not to be working on major
holidays. That occurred in 1994, when Stephen Breyer joined the court—a year
after Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Earlier, I spoke of great changes I have seen in women’s occupations.
Yet one must acknowledge the still bleak part of the picture. Most
people in poverty in the United States and the world over are women and
children, women’s earnings here and abroad trail the earnings of men
with comparable education and experience, our workplaces do not
adequately accommodate the demands of childbearing and child rearing,
and we have yet to devise effective ways to ward off sexual harassment
at work and domestic violence in our homes. I am optimistic, however,
that movement toward enlistment of the talent of all who compose “We,
the people,” will continue.

Snitching for the feds can be dangerous work, but it also can be pretty lucrative.
One
South Florida man who has been working undercover as a confidential
informant for 31 years has been paid about $1.5 million for his efforts,
according to court records and testimony that shed some light on the
usually shadowy world of informants.
The payments, which appear to have started during President Ronald Reagan's second term in office, average out to more than $48,000 per year.
The
Drug Enforcement Administration won't say who he is or why he does what
he does, but some information about him slipped out in court this week
after the DEA used him in a heroin sting.

The Southern District of Florida blog was started by David Oscar Markus, who is a criminal trial and appellate lawyer in Miami, Florida. He frequently practices in federal courts around the country, including his hometown, the Southern District of Florida and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. He is a former law clerk to then-Chief Judge of the District, Edward B. Davis.